Mustafa Khattab – Br. Akber Ali A Volunteer With The Muslim Welfare Centre

Start the practice here in Canada, inshallah. So

we make God for him.

He's also an,

editor of the Clear Quran. He was helping

us with the translation.

A great guy.

And also, he's a volunteer with Islamic Relief.

So

and Muslim welfare center. So inshallah, by the

end of this month, we'll collect some items

from you,

food items,

then we'll they will be presented to,

Islamic Relief,

and the Muslim welfare will be presented to

the needy inshaAllah. So I'm gonna introduce him,

so he will talk to you about what

he does basically to help the refugees and

those in need.

Love for the new brother, Ibrahim.

So before I get into talking about

what I do,

for my volunteer time,

who likes soccer here?

Okay. It's Warner Robe. Okay. Great. So

tell me who's your favorite player?

Who's your favorite player, brother? Who? Neymar. Neymar.

Okay.

Ronaldo.

Okay. So we got the 3 best players.

Okay. Okay. So

we got the 3 best players. Right? My

best player is Ronaldo.

So

Ronaldo. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. You've written him a bit. I

really need to So if you look at

if you look at these and then The

reason I asked to tell me your favorite

player because you can look at what they

do

off the soccer field. So you said Messi.

You said Niem. You said Ronaldo.

You know

that not only do they play soccer, but

they give a lot of their money to

different charities around the world.

So Ronaldo,

has given 1,000,000 and 1,000,000 of dollars,

to different charities around the world. He's also

given, lots of money to Palestinians,

in the Gaza Strip,

and to other organizations

for building hospitals and schools and different things

like that. So but he makes 100 of

1,000,000 of dollars. Does anybody in this room

make 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars?

I don't think so. Not yet. Maybe your

mom must've had, but none of us. Okay?

So when you don't have that kind of

money, how do you help other people? That's

the question. Right?

So I'll tell you. I'll give you the

answer. Don't worry. I'll give you the answer.

So I don't have that kind of money

either, but if you don't have the money,

then you can give your time.

Right? You can give your time, and you

can use the different,

tools that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given

you, especially your brain and your physical abilities

to go help other people.

So what do I do? I volunteer with

the Muslim Welfare Center on a few projects.

Our main project that we have is called

Project Ramadan. So during the month of Ramadan,

we donate

different,

food items and food baskets

to needy families around Toronto.

So I don't have a lot of money,

but I have the time,

and I have the will to go and

help all these other people. So we collect

a bunch of money from everybody around Toronto,

then we go and buy a bunch of

food, and during Ramadan, we get hundreds of

volunteers, Muslim volunteers, to come out and build

baskets of food, and we deliver it to

the needy families around Toronto.

So another one that we do,

is we it's called the Syrian welcome kit.

So any of the new refugees that come

into Toronto,

we give them a welcome kit when they

move into their new home.

So if you if I took you

and put you in the middle of

the United States of America

and put you into an apartment and you

had nothing there,

what is the first thing you would need?

Tell me. Food.

Oh, you said money. Money. No. No. Not

money.

Food. Food. You got it. That's it. So

you need food to survive. Right? So what

we do is is we make these welcome

kits

to help the refugees when they move into

their new home. So we give them food,

we give them pillows, we give them blankets

and sheets, we give them cleaning supplies, and

we give them a lot of other things.

So all of these things that we do

are all from volunteers.

Yes?

What's that? House. A house. When they move

into their house, that's when we give them

all these things. So, alhamdulillah, they get a

house and we give them all of these

items to start off their new life.

So the point that I'm trying to make

is that you don't have to be rich

to be able to give back to other

people.

You don't have to be, you know, famous

to give back to other people.

So I heard that you guys are doing

a food drive. Is that right? Yes. Yes.

Okay. And you guys are bringing in canned

goods. Right?

No. Okay. So are you going around in

your neighborhoods and getting your neighbors to donate

as well?

No.

Whoever said no,

then tonight you should go out and knock

on your neighbor's door and ask them if

they have any canned goods that they would

like to donate to needy families. And you'll

be surprised at how many people are willing

to give you food.

Everybody's willing to help and give to that

to those who are less needy. All of

us in this room are very lucky.

We have a home.

We have food. I just had cars. We

have we have parents. We have a school.

We go we all go to school. But

we don't own jobs. So we're all lucky

here. So there's people in this country that

don't have all of those things. So it's

our job to help those who have less

than we do. Right?

Yeah. Right. That's right. No.

So at the end of the month, whenever

you guys are done collecting all the cans,

I'll come back here and see

which class has collected the most cans.

And the class that collects the most cans

is gonna get a prize. We're going shopping

today.

Okay. It's a surprise. I hope so. So

whoever collects the most cans Surprise. Is going

to get a prize.

So I ask you to go out and

try to collect as many cans as possible.

And when we when I come back in

a couple weeks, we're going to give you

a prize. Yes?

Everyone. You can get food from anywhere. It

doesn't matter. But the more places you go

and ask for food, the more people will

give you.

Okay. No problem. Sure.

Yes.

Most candidates are, but yes. It has to

be. Any other questions? Go for it.

Okay. So the brother asked a good question.

Everybody pay attention. I'll only be a couple

of minutes. I'm letting you guys all ask

questions. So the brother asked a good question.

How did they come to Canada?

So if you know about the world that

in Syria there's a war going on.

So

people are then moved out of their home

and they are in sent into refugee camps.

And they have to stay in a tent

for a few months or a few years.

And only a very few of them are

lucky to come to Canada.

We're all lucky we live here, but only

a few of them are lucky enough to

come to Canada. And then the government brings

them over, and then they get settled into

a home. But when they get settled into

a home, they're left to do everything by

themselves. And that's why it's our job as

Muslims

to help our fellow brothers and sisters when

they move into into their new homes into

Canada. To help them not only with money,

not only with supplies, but also help them

get to the masjid. Also help them with

all these other things. Yes?

Can you give candy? Thank you so much.

Candy?

No. You don't want to give candy. You

give the candy to me, I'll eat it.

But you give the nice nice canned goods.

No. I never gave him candy.

Once once I did a receiving recipes of

chicken toys. Because it was Ramadan and we

had to give

the

So you're saying that you bought toys and

you gave them to the refugees. Right? Masha'Allah.

Good job.

My name

is Nahuji.

Does this stuff have to be in cans?

Yes. It's a canned food drive.

So anything that's canned, non perishable. But does

it have to does the can have to

be metal?

All the cans are metal. Aluminum.

We'll take care of that for them. We'll

give we we give them a can opener

in our in our basket, sir.

So they have different projects.

The youngest age, I'm not a 100% sure.

But what you can do is if you

want to volunteer, you can go on their

website,

and you can sign up to be a

volunteer. So they have the, Riz Conference, the

reviving the Islamic Spirit conference coming up in

December. So they're always looking for volunteers, even

to hand out flyers, even to stand at

a few booths and do different things. So

go on their website

and then and then type it in. And

I'm not sure exactly what the minimum age

is. I think it's you have to be

a certain teenager. I think you have to

be 15 or 16. But just go online

and and and see exactly what it is.

To donate and stuff?

So you can go to the Muslim Welfare

Center which is at Mavis and,

Central Parkway, And they have a lot of

flyers. And also, if you have canned goods

at home that your parents want to get

rid of, you can also donate them there.

Sure.

So the mother said that him and his

family don't eat a water during Ramadan, for

the people who are fasting. Very would you

like? I'd want to hear yes or no.

You go you go there. So you know

the good work that they do there. Yes.

So at the Muslim offer center, they accept

everything. You can give them,

clothes,

gently used clothes, jackets. Jackets, we need a

lot of jackets,

for the refugee families, because they come from

a warm climate.

Now they're in the freezing cold Canada, so

we accept it.

Yes. Tuna is a canned food.

At the okay. That's the last question. But

at the end of the day, the point

is, brothers and sisters, you don't have to

be rich and famous to give back to

other people. Even if you don't have food,

even if you don't have other things, being

nice to each other,

helping each other here at school, being nice

to one another, that is also sadqa. So

I thank you for your time.

I hope you guys I'll see you in

a couple weeks.

And the and the the person or the

class that has the most will get a

prize. Okay. Tell her about that. Okay.